Ubuntu 16.04 Linux Debuts With Support Until 2021

Ubuntu 16.04 Linux Debuts With Support Until 2021

The latest long-term support release of one of the most popular Linux distributions brings new package management, container and file system capabilities.

LTS Release Means Five Years of Support

The Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus operating system is a long-term support release, with both desktop and server editions benefiting from five years of support. Canonical releases new LTS milestones every two years.

OpenStack Mitaka Powers the Cloud

Part of Canonical's overall release cadence is designed to align with the OpenStack release cycle, which produces new milestones every six months. For Ubuntu 16.04, the OpenStack Mitaka update, released April 7 by the OpenStack Foundation, is included.

ZFS is An Optional File System

With Ubuntu 16.04, Canonical is providing its users with the option of running the ZFS (zettabyte file system) that was originally developed by Sun Microsystems for use on Solaris Unix. An open-source port of ZFS, known as OpenZFS, enables the file system to run on Linux, providing users with a high-performance technology for handling large file system needs.

LXD Enables Secure Containers

Ubuntu 16.04 supports Docker containers in multiple ways that help improve performance, security and scalability. With LXD, which is a container hypervisor virtualization approach, Ubuntu is providing a secure system daemon for LXC (Linux containers).

Unity Desktop Remains Default

While there are other desktop environments that a user can run with Ubuntu 16.04, the default remains the Unity desktop.

Snappy Provides Quick Updates

The Snappy packaging system provides a transactional updating system that enables applications to be updated quicker than with a traditional application package.

Snapcraft Helps Developers Build Snappy Apps

Snappy applications or "Snaps" can be easily built and deployed with Ubuntu's Snapcraft tool.

Linux Kernel 4.4 Is at the Core

At the foundation of the Ubuntu 16.04 operating system is a Linux 4.4 kernel. The Linux 4.4 kernel was the first released by Linux founder Linus Torvalds this year.

Every two years, Canonical releases what it refers to as an LTS, or a long-term support, version of its open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system. On April 21, Ubuntu 16.04 (also known as the Xenial Xerus) made its debut as the first LTS update since Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) was released in 2014. Ubuntu 16.04 provides users on the desktop, server and cloud with a new operating system that will be supported for five years (until 2021). Among the highlighted capabilities that Canonical is including in the new release is the Snappy transactional update package system. With Snappy, applications are packaged as "Snaps," which can be updated quicker than a traditional Linux package format. To help developers package apps for Snappy, Canonical has created the Snapcraft tool for building and deploying Snaps. On the server side, container deployment gets a boost with the LXD container hypervisor technology. With LXD, containers can run in a secured system process, enabling better performance as well as application density. For the cloud, Ubuntu 16.04 integrates the recently released OpenStack Mitaka cloud platform. In this slide show, eWEEK takes a look at some of the features in the Ubuntu 14.04 Linux release.